


A story about him

by Saltylocks



Series: Carlos the scientist [25]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Cecil and Carlos' children grow up, Origin Story, Other, Time Travel, back story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 07:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3641787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltylocks/pseuds/Saltylocks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my origin story for the Man in the tan jacket. </p><p>It ties in with the rest of the series but could probably be read on its own. </p><p>This story has no trigger warnings, unless you count a very lonely childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A story about him

**Author's Note:**

> The man in the tan jacket is in fact named Josh, not Everett/Emmet/Earnest. 
> 
> This story deviates quite a bit from the normal concept but I hope you like it. 
> 
> This has no smut or anything, sorry about that, I'm thinking about setting this up as a first part of a series where the Man in the tan jacket meets the Apache tracker and they like each other a lot. But first, he needs a backstory.

Joshua's life had been weird since the day he had hatched. He couldn't remember much of his first few years, and since he didn't know he was supposed to ask, he for many years assumed he had just popped into existence one day, clad and fed and ready to take on the world. He knew Cecil was his father, sure, and that he had once had a papa too, who everyone in town missed dearly. “Carlos the scientist”, they said, with tears in their eyes, and their faces would gloss over, like they always did. They started to talk to other people about other things.

Joshua was used to it by the time he started asking questions of his own. He knew he was different, that he couldn't keep anyone's attention for long and that people never remembered who he was. His big sisters told him as soon as he could read and write to just leave a note if he wanted anything, but he was usually too shy to ask for anything. He had been a quiet baby, they teased, and had only gotten quieter with age. But they and dad never pushed him away, like other people did, they remembered him easily as soon he came into view, and for that he was thankful enough.

He didn't remember, but the Faceless Old Woman told him many times growing up, that he had been assigned to her by his father when the radio host realized he couldn't remember his son. It had freaked him out, and since he didn't know what to do he had asked her for help. She was different too, Joshua knew, because she was everywhere and therefore never turned away from him. She kept her distance at first, but kept the food coming and changed him when needed, and when he grew older, she taught him to read, write and do maths. She also showed him the good things about being practically invisible, that he never had to ask permission for anything, slip into any classroom he wanted, do anything he liked without being caught. They visited soccer games, museums, the library and all sorts of cool places. When he got older he went to high school and college lectures, and slipping into the library, passed the librarians unnoticed, to soak up everything he could learn from it.

He also sat in a lot with his dad, watching him broadcast, helping him write episodes. Cecil never remembered what parts he had written, but always thanked him for every contribution. On occasion he followed his sisters too, Hazel making the most interesting choices and Skyler being more like himself. He would overhear them talking and leave little gifts for them at times, like some book from the library for Skyler or a new pair of running shoes for Hazel, and though they didn't remember him he saw they were thankful and felt happy for them.

He knew he grew up fast, as his sisters had done, and he watched them fall in love for the first time, most noticeable Hazel to the multiple Williams' boy. Joshua's young mind didn't process the implications and didn't understand the worried looks their surroundings gave them, the oldest of Teddy Junior being around thirty five and the youngest around fifteen, still a year older than Hazel at the time. They ran away together and he missed her, he knew that his daddy and Skyler did too. Joshua had never known you actually could run away, that you could be somewhere else than where your family was.

He told the Faceless Old Woman as he helped her pull out all the electrics in some old man's home and plugging the sockets with fire ants. She stopped what she was doing and came to stand in front of him, her silvery hair in neat braids, framing her flat face. 

“Josh, Josh,” she said and put a hand on his shoulder, and her voice filled his head instead of his ears, as usual, “I know the world out there sounds exciting, but think about it. If you already know so few here, what will happen to you if you don't know anyone? Who would see you, notice you, take care of you if you got ill?”

Joshua listened, and nodded, understanding. He would be alone out there. No one would see him, no one would talk to him.

“Maybe you could come with me?” he asked, his childish eyes a hopeful brown. 

She laughed him in the face, letting go of him and getting back to stuffing the circuits. Unlike him, the ants couldn't kill her. She didn't say anything more and he walked off, a lot on his mind. 

He kept watching, learning, reading, helping out. Hazel came back, her face stern and tired, and she slept for a week. He watched over her like an angel. Her suitors tried to enter the house at night, and he summoned the old eldrich forces and pulverized them. She never knew they were there. After a while she got her color back in her cheeks, her lightness in her step. But he never were the same.

A couple of years went by and he became more and more isolated, staying in the library mostly, the scrapings and hisses of the librarians soothing. For his 18th birthday the Faceless Old Woman sought him out. She hadn't aged, he knew that, but he had, he had grown a beard and he hadn't kept it short. She huffed at his appearance and he smiled in return. The Faceless Woman didn't look as old anymore, no to him anyway.

“Sorry I haven't been around,” she apologized.

“That's okay,” he said, his voice hoarse from not speaking in so long.

She coaxed him out of the building and out in the open night. It was nice to have the wind in his face again. They sat down at the Moonlite All-night Diner and the Faceless Woman got him something to eat while she had a milkshake and some stale french fries.

“Eighteen years, huh?” she said. “You look older.”

“Thank you. You look younger,” he said, and then he blushed, remembering that she actually would remember him after and that he might have to watch his words around her.

She snorted at him, leaning her face into her hands.

“Well, I feel like I'm a thousand years old,” she sighed.

“I heard about your campaigning against Hiram,” he said, apologizing with his eyes for not knowing anything more recent in her life.

She waved him off, not wanting to talk about it.

“One of many foolish decisions. Never again will I involve myself with politics. It is not worth it, believe me.”

“I always believe you,” Joshua said, his mouth drawing upwards in a unconscious smile. “well, almost always, I mean, I...”

“Oh, before I forget,” she interrupted him and reached behind her chair, “happy birthday!”

It was a suit case, made of skin. He had read about tailoring and stitching somewhere over the years, and immediately saw that it was very well made. He had never gotten anything for his birthday before, nothing more than maybe a new sweater and once a supporter jacket for the Desert Bluffs Vultures, which he wore ironically. People seemed to remember him for a little longer when he wore things or colors that clashed with their idea of what people should wear. 

When he just looked at the suitcase, held it in his hands, he sensed the Faceless Woman fidgeting.

“I thought you might need to get out a little more, you know, and you can carry your books in it, and I also thought that you seem a little lonely, so I got you some friends.”

She tapped the flap three times, and the bag started to buzz. Joshua stared at it and then up at her, before flipping the bag open. A cloud of flies buzzed out and started eating off the cake he had ordered. 

“Thank you?” he said, unsure.

“Don't look at me like that, you can make them do lots of things, you'll see!” she pouted, and he wondered how he knew she did that when she didn't have lips to pout with.

The rest of the night they talked old memories and laughed, and it was nice to know someone who actually remembered what he'd said and done for once.

“Excuse me,” the waitress said after a while, her fingers oozing some green liquid as she swatted at the flies, “but if you don't contain your flies, I will.”

They collected all the small critters and Joshua were grateful for the interruption, because he was getting tired. 

“Can we go outside again?” he said. “I feel like some air would do me good.”

They walked for a bit, Joshua looked up as they passed Teddy's old house. It was dark now, the Williams' had split up after their son's disappearance. Joshua tried to feel guilty about it but he couldn't. After what he had done to his sister, he deserved it. Josh hadn't seen her in a long time now, not Skyler either. Or daddy. He decided to pay them all a visit right now, and asked the Faceless Woman if she would walk him to them.

A second later she let him down in front of the house. It was early morning and the wind swept through the unkempt grass in the back yard. They weren't alone though. A man dressed in a dirty old rag that might at some point had been white, with glowing tattoos all over his body, stood beside him in the grass, as though he had been nailed there. 

“No,” the man whispered, reaching out towards the house.

Turning, the man stared straight at Joshua, in a way that no one ever had done before. Normally he'd have to wave or shout in order to get attention but this man, he saw him. Who was he? Beside him, the Faceless Woman gasped.

“Carlos...”

~ooo~

Joshua stared at his father, his papa. 

“But that's impossible!” he breathed. 

The man didn't seem to hear him though.

“What year is it?” he grumbled, his teeth gritted. He didn't look old enough to be his dad, his hair had a couple of gray streaks but his face was unlined and his eyes bright.

Joshua told him and the scientist fell to his knees as though he'd been shot.

“I've been away so long,” he whispered. “Are anyone still...?”

He looked up at him, eyes fixating in a very scary way on Joshua.

“Do you know anything about the family that live here?” he asked.

Joshua swallowed, as the porch door fell open and Cecil opened the doors to the back yard. His eyes squinted as they searched the ground, and finally fell on the crouching figure in the grass.

“Who goes there?” he yelled, a shell of his normal self, his voice shrill and broken.

“Cecil?” Carlos asked in disbelief, and moved towards him, up the wooden stairs, and into his boyfriend's arms. They fell over, Carlos twisting inhumanly fast and breaking the fall, dunking into the wood floorboards head first. Still a grin was plastered on his face as Cecil lifted his head to look down at him, eyes big and wet. 

“Carlos,” he chanted, “Carlos, it's you, you're really here, oh my gods, Carlos, Carlos, my beautiful Carlos...”

It was the most heartbreaking thing Joshua had ever seen, and he continued to watch as Hazel came flying down the stairs, shouting, calling Skyler over the phone, watching Skyler drive up and turn in to a giant mass of tentacles in her excitement, and he watched and watched. He didn't even notice he was crying until the Faceless Woman handed him an handkerchief and that was when he noticed she was still standing beside him too.

“I always loved a happy ending,” she sniveled. 

Joshua looked back at the scene with furrowed eyebrows. He didn't think this was a happy ending at all. He had grown up without a father who could actually see him, and Joshua could only imagine what that would have been like.

And it was right there, right then, on his 18th birthday, he realized what he needed to do. He had all this knowledge, all this exploring hunger, but he didn't want to use it to go somewhere else in space. He didn't want to go to New York or Paris or Tokyo. He wanted to stay in Night Vale. His mission was to go back in time and save himself, he would make sure that his father never got inside those oak doors in the first place! Saving him all these lonely years, all this time on the edges of the world.

He looked back towards his family. He might never see them again. Joshua told himself he didn't care. He had to make one thing sure though. As they all walked inside the house again, all wrapped together, Carlos lingered on the steps for a second, holding the door frame in a firm grip. Joshua walked up to him and Carlos turned around. They stared at each other. Joshua saw Carlos study his face, knowing he had more of Cecil's pointy features but that there was some of the scientist in the mix as well. As understanding dawn on his papa's face, he marveled at the fact that he hadn't even said anything, and yet so much had been conveyed between them.

“What's your name?” Carlos murmured.

“Joshua.”

Carlos reached out to him, touched him, and the invisible boy let himself have that little snippet of human contact, falling into his father's embrace and feel his arms around him for a moment. His papa smelled like dust and tanned skin.

“No one can see me,” he whispered.

“That sounds very lonely,” Carlos said thickly. “I'm so sorry I didn't get here sooner.”

“Don't be,” Joshua said, “you have given me a mission. I will go back and I will get you home.”

“Joshua, no, it could be dangerous,” his father said, and Joshua chuckled darkly. 

“I don't care about that.” 

“Come inside, instead,” Carlos tried. 

Joshua almost stayed, but his mind burned with a newfound sense of purpose. His body knew that if he allowed it inside the walls of that house, he would settle for almost-as-good. And he could not do that, would not do that. 

“I can't, papa,” he said, and he turned and ran, ran as fast as his legs could carry him, and suddenly he was moved and running towards the vortex in the back of the Williams' old house. He still had his deerskin suitcase clasped in his hands. The Faceless Woman stood beside him as he stood in front of the twirling black and blues in the ground, handing him a packed lunch and a travel mug of hot coffee.

“Have fun,” she said, a sad smile in her voice.

“Did you know?” he asked, preparing himself for the jump. “Did you know this was where I was going to end up?”

“I had a feeling,” she said. “You are the son of two great men after all. Come find me when you get there, okay?”

“I will,” Joshua said.

They embraced, and as he let her go, he felt a little electric tingle in the corner of his lip. She had kissed him.

“Be a good boy,” she whispered.

Joshua just nodded, before taking a deep breath and letting his feet leave the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, hi, thanks for reading<3
> 
> If you want more, please tell me.


End file.
